Chapter 192

We returned to our apartment in Packhaven uneventfully. I’d have expected someone from the palace to be waiting at the airport to bring me home, but then again, I hadn’t told them I’d be back yet. So, in order to find me, they’d have to be tracking my flights.

I only needed a short time at the house, just long enough to figure out where the stalker lived, and then I would be on another plane out of there. I had done what the mousy little man from the palace had asked and checked in the two days previous.

I was positive they were tracking that phone, so they knew exactly where I was at. I assumed that if I wasn’t being bothered, I must still have the green light to continue with my interviews.

Like finding the queen, tracking down this doctor seemed to take all of my resources, starting with Charles taking me to the Alpha Archives. That was quite an adventure for him as well since his mother still did most of the archiving, and he had never actually been to the archives himself.

He stared in wonder at the archives, but since I had been there before, I went directly to the computers where I had found the palace logs to start with. From there, it didn’t take much searching before I ran across the name of a doctor, Peter Milton.

Doctor Milton disappeared from the archives just after the death of Queen Rosemary. The log’s official reason for his dismissal was failure to save the queen. I really hoped that that didn’t mean that he’d been killed.

Also included in the Alpha Archives was all of the census information for Orlune. So, I used that to trace him back. There were no death records for Doctor Peter Milton, but it also didn’t have a current listed address for him either.

The one piece of good luck fate tossed me was a thread at best. But I had a name, and I had his last known address, which was in the very south of Orlune in a small city called Lunar Landing. I rolled my eyes at the dumb pun in that name: Lunar Landing. How ridiculous. Something like Lake Landing, I would totally understand.

But werewolves had no interest in landing on the moon. Only the humans were obsessed with getting to the moon, while we werewolves knew the truth and worshipped the deity who lived there.

Sometimes, when I saw those reports from the human civilization come in, I wondered how the moon goddess felt about them walking all over her sacred space. Then again, she hadn’t struck down the population of humans. So, evidently, their space explorations weren’t worth bothering about—yet.

Anyway, I’d have to be careful when trying to track down this Doctor Milton. I didn’t want to draw attention to yet another person from the palace who might have retired in secret. So, I used the ride back home to look up airports that brought us within a one-day drive of Lunar Landing.

Charles glanced over at me since I’d been silent for quite a while. “What is it that you’re looking up?” He asked.

“Well, we ran the Queen out of her hiding place by going directly to her,” I said. “So, I’m trying to find a way that we can fly in and check this doctor out without being quite so obvious.”

I pointed to the map. “See, here to the north, there’s the big shipping port, Wolf Bay. If we fly in there and then take a drive, it won’t be quite so obvious.”

Charles pulled into our parking spot at our apartment and took the phone from my hands, frowning at the map. “According to this, it’s a nine-hour drive from Wolf Bay all the way down to Lunar Landing.”

He paused and wrinkled his nose. “Is it just me, or is that a dumb name?”

“Evidently, they must have found that the city and the sitting in the 1950s or 60s when the human moon missions were all the rage,” I said, “because yes.”

“Or maybe when the poor people founded the place, they had no idea the humans would insist on doing that.” He rolled his eyes and gave his head a shake and focused back on the map. “We can’t find anything closer than a nine-hour drive?”

“Not with a big enough airport to escape suspicion. I really don’t want the palace sniffing around somebody else. I feel bad enough about Queen Rosemary. If I had any idea we’d compromise her hiding spot, we’d have flown in just about anywhere else.”

I frowned. “Maybe we can arrive in Wolf Cove, then take the train there. But flying in that far away is the best I can do to cover our tracks. And we’ll have to make sure when we make our phone calls to and from the palace, we do it from Wolf Bay and not from anywhere near Lunar Landing.”

“Just stop,” he said. “That name sounds so stupid. Just call it Lunar, okay?”

“Anyway, we can’t call from Lunar. Otherwise, They’ll know exactly where we were. Because I’m sure they’re tracking the phone.”

Charles crossed his arms. “And you don’t think they’re tracking it physically?”

I frowned. “We can always leave the phone in our hotel room in Wolf Bay.”

“That’s a better plan,” he agreed.

“Then when should we fly out?” I asked.

“Probably as soon as we can find tickets.”

I smiled and teased. “It’s a good thing you’re loaded. I’m sure these last-minute flights aren’t coming cheap.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He got out of the car, and I followed him up to our elevator.

“But seriously, we’re packing to go to the airport tonight? We’re going to be exhausted.”

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “I would rather look like we’re flying out for more interviews. Like you told the palace that we were going to do. You can call them from Lunar tomorrow and let them know that you have an interview for the next evening or something just to throw them off our tail. I’d rather be across the country than sitting around here where they can get to us whenever they want.”

“Well, when you put it like that,” I said. “Bring on the jetlag!”

I wasn’t particularly thrilled with myself for that statement. By the time we arrived, severely jet-lagged, in Wolf Bay, I watched the scenery in a stupor.

The shipping port of Wolf Bay was amazing, stretching for miles along the coastline with huge cargo vessels docked below massive cranes. And though they looked like toys from the airplane, the nearby warehouses looked like building bricks. I could only imagine the size of a ship that could fit those warehouses on its upper deck and the cranes that would lift such cargo off.

We landed and I just followed along while Charles navigated our rental car and found our way to our hotel with David’s help. Theo sat in the back seat with me, every so often peering over at me as if he expected me to be asleep.

The four of us slept all the way past the continental breakfast the next morning. When we woke, we decided on brunch. We found a cafe not too far from the last address of Doctor Milton, had our breakfast, and took off for his previous residence.